The death of Washington Times founder Sun Myung Moon has reopened questions as to the future of the newspaper in light of the uncertainty in recent years about its continuation.
The Korean-born Moon,
casque monster beats, who also established the controversial Unification Church, died September 3 at age 92 in South Korea.
Lingering questions over newspaper's level of independence
Since it began publishing in 1982, the Times has been dogged by questions of how independent its news coverage,
air jordan pas cher, and sometimes editorials, were from the control of Moon and the evangelical Unification Church, which was heavily involved in a range of business activities as well as social and political activism.
Moon's conservatism and adamant opposition to communism were well known even before he founded the Times, and those views often found expression in the paper's editorial pages. Previously, during the 1970s Moon conducted rallies in the United States in support of then President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate period, in addition to meeting personally with Nixon at the White House.
The Times started less than a year after Washington had lost the city's second paper,
doudoune moncler, the Washington Star after more than 100 years in operation. A number of writing staff from the Star initially joined the Times,
casque beats by dre, including media columnist Howard Kurtz who later went to the rival Washington Post before for The Daily Beast.
It remained Moon's objective to compete with the Post and offer a conservative voice in the nation's capital. The paper was heralded by congressional conservatives and others and read regularly by President Ronald Reagan who was in office when it began and was supported by the Times.
Critics would derisively call the Times a "Moonie paper" and point to instances in which they claimed its news pages read like campaign literature for Republican candidates. One such case was during the 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore when the paper ran a headline saying, "Bush sees Reagan traits in self."
In 2008, Editor-in-Chief Wesley Pruden stepped down and John Solomon, who was recruited from the Post, became executive editor. Although Solomon's tenure at the helm of the Times proved to be a short one, the paper made some stylistic changes then such as discontinuing the use of "illegal aliens" and "homosexual" in place of "illegal immigrants" and "gay," and ending having quotation marks around the word "marriage" when referring to "gay marriage."
Ongoing Times loss of money and smaller readership
The Times has continually lost money over the years and its circulation has never approached that of the Post, despite its rival losing readers and advertising revenue of late. In 2008, it stopped submitting readership reports to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The Times also had relied on subsidies in the billions from the Unification Church to maintain the paper.
An indication of turmoil came in late 2009 when the paper's top executives--the publisher,
doudoune moncler, chief operating officer, and director, who were all church officials--were abruptly dismissed. The paper announced it would begin eliminating some positions in its newsroom and end its sports and local news coverage, focusing instead on national politics, investigative reporting, and cultural issues reflecting traditional values.
A involving the Times' future as the founder's 90th birthday approached led to the Moon family ending the church's $35 million annual subsidy for the paper, over whether it would continue or possibly become online only.
Moon had turned over the paper's operation around 2006 to his oldest son, Hyun Jin "Preston" Moon, who was estranged from other family members. Preston provided his own funding to keep the Times going after the subsidy was cut.
Moon brought back in late role with paper
The senior Moon reemerged to some degree in late 2010 when an arrangement was reached to have a group of former Times executives representing him repurchase the paper. Aside from assuming its millions of dollars in debt, the move also restored the subsidy and eventually led to the rehiring of former staffers and the return of the paper's sports, metro news, and life sections.
In the interim the paper has placed less emphasis on its print edition around Washington to focus more on its website for a national audience.
The paper had an extended to Moon upon his death. Still the Post's media critic Erik Wemple that the Times ignored its own internal problems and the reasons why speculation has been reignited over what the founder's passing could ultimately mean.
In his lifetime Moon has never far removed from criticisms or questions over a number of his official actions, including his practice of of couples who sometimes did not know each other beforehand.
In 1978, Congress investigated the Unification Church as part of an examination into Korean influence buying in the United States. A congressional subcommittee concluded that Moon's organization had violated U.S. tax, immigration, banking, and currency laws.
In 1982 he was convicted of tax evasion charges and served 11 months in a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut. Moon maintained that he was the target of religious discrimination.
After he left office, former President George H.W. Bush appeared at Unification Church-affiliated events both in the U.S. and abroad.
Other prominent individuals were paid for appearances at conferences associated with Moon. Former President Gerald R. Ford, comedian Bill Cosby, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev,
beats by dre pas cher, and one-time U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp of New York attended functions, sometimes saying afterwards they were unaware of any connection between the groups inviting them and Moon.
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